Who Was the Best Losing VP-Pick Since the War?

My first guess would be Bentsen in '88. The only thing people remember is his debate moment against Quayle, and he seemed like he'd be pretty good in office. Of course, he and Dukakis were crushed in the election, so it's hard to prove that he actually helped.

A Gallup piece from August 2008, measuring VP bounces from '96-04:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/109381/candidates-gotten-small-poll-bounce-after-naming-vp.aspx

Biggest bounce was Dole/Kemp in '96--from a pathetic 30% to a not-quite-as-pathetic 39%.

Warren and Muskie would've made the best presidents.

fortunately the Supreme Court got Warren, but the Tower Commission got Muskie.

I don't think Dole would have been very good in '76, but I think 18 years later he might have made a good president--imagine most of his problems would have been with Gingrich and his own party.

20 years later, I mean.

yeah Warren has to be the choice for Brown v The Board alone.

Good thing he didn't become VP though

If the poll had been extended, FDR would win this obv.

I have a special affinity for Estes Kefauver, being the only one who gets mentioned in The Godfather Part II ("Here we are, protected, free to make our profits without Kefauver..."--that, plus the Kefauver-modelled mob hearings.)

I missed that line!

earl warren's birthday is a holiday in my household, so him.

'vice-presidential candidate' features very prominently on William E. Miller's gravestone

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kc4cvmVaugU/VC8N-N38WNI/AAAAAAAAI0Y/L7C0psfEFB4/s1600/wmiller1.jpg

That's kind of touching, even without taking into account what a landslide that was.

he starred in the first American Express 'do you know me' commercial!

this thing his daughter wrote makes him sound quite sweet

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-miller/abandoned-by-wolves-raised-by-republicans_b_7555096.html

I also remember Dad saying, “If I’d known we were going to lose by sixteen million votes, I never would have worked that hard.” Then, as he did after every joke he told, he snorted uncontrollably.

Don’t get me wrong, Dad remained an optimist throughout his entire life. And from someone who came across as so mild-mannered, he really was an incredibly funny man. Still, Dad wasn’t comfortable letting loose with me until I was much older. It wasn’t until I was in college that my father finally shared his more risqué side with me.

I remember that awkward night well when Dad first treated me like a grown-up. My parents took me and my roommate out to dinner. The conversation hit a lull, and my father, out of the blue, said, “Hey, Tina, how do you know a macho woman?”

My roommate, looking puzzled, said, “I don’t know. How?”

My father, with a mischievous gleam in his eye: “She has a kick-starter on her vibrator!”
Then he laughed and snorted. The silverware flew. This, of course, elicited my mother’s patented response (patent holder: June Cleaver), “Oh, Dear. Oh, Bill.”

After the salt and pepper shakers spun to a stop, I stared agape at my parents for about ten seconds. Did my dad, Bill Miller, just tell me and my roommate a vibrator joke? What the...? I was a 20-year-old sexual unsophisticate and I’d barely even seen a sex toy at that point. I guess by 1981 the ‘60s free love revolution had finally made it up to Lockport. And...Mom? Eww. Is this how they started talking as soon as the baby cub left the den?

i really just want a way to vote against lieberman

it'd be cool to visit the parallel universe where winona laduke became president

Did my dad, Bill Miller, just tell me and my roommate a vibrator joke? What the...? I was a 20-year-old sexual unsophisticate and I’d barely even seen a sex toy at that point.

Did My Dad, Bill Miller, Just Tell Me and My Roommate a Vibrator Joke?

needs a little tightening up but there's a good young-adult book title here somewhere

Are You There, God? It's My Vibrator.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I maybe should have included Thomas Eagleton--read an interesting book on all the craziness surrounding him in '72.

Estes Kefauver def has the coolest name

KEFAUVER (holding up an especially gory EC Comic title): “This seems to be a man with a bloody axe holding a woman’s head up, which has been severed from her body. Do you think that is in good taste?”
GAINES: “Yes sir, I do for the cover of a horror comic. A cover in bad taste might be defined as holding the head higher so that the blood could be seen dripping from it.”
KEFAUVER: “You’ve got blood coming out of her mouth”
GAINES: “A little.”

heh

KEFAUVER: “You’ve got blood coming out of her mouth”
GAINES: "Well, yeah."

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ferraro? fucking superdelegates.

Yeah, that's a weird one. Mondale was wiped out, and there was controversy with her husband. She didn't acquit herself all that well in 2008. Historically important, obviously, but she must have accomplishments I don't know about.

Curtis Lemay got a vote? For being the most outlandish possible veep pick? The man was gung-ho to start a nuclear war by striking the USSR first without a declaration of war or any other warning. He was a maniac.